Fals: The Coins That Traveled Through Time!

Have you ever seen a coin? The Fals was a special coin made of copper a long, long time ago. It was first made by people called the Umayyad Caliphate, starting around the time when dinosaurs might have been around, but not quite!

These coins were like the money people used to trade and buy yummy treats or cool toys. They were usually round and made of copper, which is a reddish-brown metal. Sometimes they were as light as a feather, and other times a bit heavier, but never too big to hold in your hand!

The Fals coin has a cool story about where it got its name. It was inspired by an even older coin called the 'follis' from the Roman and Byzantine empires. Think of it like a game of telephone, where one idea gets passed along and changes a little!

The Umayyad Caliphate started making these Fals coins in the late 600s. That's a super long time ago, even before your grandparents' grandparents were born! They were made in a place called the Caliphate, which was a big kingdom back then.

Most Fals coins had a special rule: they didn't have pictures of people or animals on them! Instead, they were decorated with beautiful, fancy writing in Arabic. Imagine a coin covered in cool squiggles and patterns instead of a king's face!

This was a common way for many Islamic coins to be made. These coins were used for a very, very long time, all the way up until the 1800s! That's longer than many countries have even existed.

They were important for trading goods and services.

Even though the old copper Fals coins aren't used for buying things anymore, the name 'Fals' is still alive! In many Arabic-speaking countries today, people say 'fils' when they talk about money. It's like how we say 'bucks' or 'dough' for money.

The word 'fils' is used for money in general. Even in other languages, like French ('flouze') and Malay ('fulus'), you can find words that came from the old Fals coin. So, this ancient coin's name is still traveling the world!